Published poetry and creative writing exercises for the curious creative by poet and playwright, Caroline N. Simpson

Thursday, July 6, 2017

The Curious Creative: Week 34

Food and Home

This is the thirty-fourth installment of The Curious Creative, weekly 10-minute writing exercises for busy individuals interested in exploring their creativity. For the complete rationale, click here.

My Thoughts:

For this week’s creative exercise, you’ll explore the connection between a specific food and the feeling of home. There will be plenty of rich sensory details to explore- taste, smell, texture, and sight. Also of interest will be how such concrete details can conjure up the abstract feeling of home.

Your Turn!

List several food dishes that remind you of “home.” They can be regional specialties or your own family’s traditional dishes.

Of these, circle your favorite.

Spend five minutes clustering or mind-mapping some of your memories associated with this food. Recall details of events, people, and environment.

Pick the most interesting detail from your brainstorm, and plug it into the opening sentence: “It was _______________________ that told me I was home.”

From this sentence, continue drafting a personal essay or narrative.

How did you do? Did your sensory details make for rich writing? Were you able to uncover interesting details that conjure up the feeling of home for you? Did one particular story emerge?

To encourage each other and grow a community of Curious Creatives, sign in from a google account so you can share your creation in the comment box below. Also, if you subscribe to this blog (submit your email address in the "Follow this Site by Email" box to the right), you will get an email update whenever a new exercise is added. Thanks for playing!

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Biography

Caroline N. Simpson is an English teacher by vocation, and a creative spirit and global adventurer at heart. She has taught English literature at international schools in Ankara, Izmir, and Erzurum, Turkey, as well as Barcelona, Spain. She currently teaches English for Academic Purposes at Edmonds Community College in Lynnwood, WA. She loves outdoor adventure, learning about other cultures, and of course writing. She has a BFA in Creative Writing from Emerson College. She studied poetry at the Ezra Pound Center for Literature in Merano, Italy, the Hugo House, Seattle, WA, and playwriting at the Einhorn School of Performing Arts. She is a member of Seattle Playwrights Circle and the Dramatists Guild. You can reach her at gobetwee@yahoo.com.